


sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead

by torigates



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-02
Updated: 2011-06-02
Packaged: 2017-10-20 00:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/207094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jess walked out of Rory's life he expected to do just that: get out of her life. To move on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead

When Jess walked out of Rory's life he expected to do just that: get out of her life. To move on.

What he should have realised is nothing with Rory Gilmore was ever that easy.

Of course it didn't help that Luke was just about as big a gossip as Patty and Babette. He might like to talk about how small town life drove him crazy and bitch about this or that scheme Taylor was trying to pull off at any given time, but the reality was Luke was knee deep in Star's Hollow politics and that was the way he liked it.

Jess would call out of a sense of obligation for everything Luke had done for him (and maybe a little because he just missed Luke—not that he'd ever admit it) and Luke would go on and on about so-and-so was up to this and so-and-so had done that and Jess would listen and nod along and only bitch a little about how he hadn't been interested in these things when he actually _lived_ in Star's Hollow why would Luke think he cared now?

That was when Luke would start in with his real purpose: Rory had done this and that, dropped _oh so casual_ into conversation like Jess didn’t know what he was doing. Jess was the king of subtlety. He _invented_ subtlety. Besides, Luke was bordering on match making matriarch more than anything else. Jess thought it was pathetic and told him so.

“What?” Luke asked. “I can’t talk to you about my life?”

“Sure,” Jess said cutting off what could easily turn into a twenty minute rant. Jess didn’t know how he and Lorelai actually managed to communicate. It was probably more like the two of them continually talking over each other. Whatever worked, he supposed. “You can talk all about your life,” Jess continued. “I just didn’t know your life included working as a journalist, Uncle Luke.”

He could practically hear Luke rolling his eyes over the phone line. Jess only called him “uncle” when he was trying to be particularly bratty (hey, at least he could own up to it).

“Whatever,” Luke said. “I’ll talk to you later.

In the background, Jess could hear Lorelai demanding coffee.

“I’ll call you next week,” he promised.

“All right,” Luke said. Jess could make out the beginning of Luke’s strangled “I’m _coming_ , woman,” before the line went dead. He just chuckled to himself and shook his head.

Things continued in a similar manner, Luke pretending he wasn’t trying to play match maker by “casually” dropping information about Rory in all of their phone calls, Jess pretending he wasn’t interested. It worked for them.

Of course, things could only go on like that for so long. Eventually Jess did run into Rory. It was Thanksgiving two years after the last time he saw her, and Luke convinced him to come back to Star’s Hollow. Liz and TJ were doing the Renaissance tour again, and Luke almost had a coronary when Jess admitted he didn’t have any plans.

“You’re coming,” Luke decided. Jess couldn’t be bothered to fight him, not when faced with the prospect of Luke’s cooking (which he really did miss). Plus the idea of spending the holiday alone in his apartment with takeout was too pathetic, even for him.

Obviously, he should have been expecting Rory, given it was at her house, but he just hadn’t put two and two together. Sometimes, he could admit, he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Still, they managed to make it through dinner with only your average small talk, Luke managing to keep the match making to a minimum, and Lorelai managing to shoot him a significant amount of dirty looks. She could hold a grudge like no one else. Jess admired that about her.

After dinner, they moved into the living room, and Jess was mentally patting himself on the back for not saying anything too stupid. Rory and Jess were sitting next to each other on the couch, while Lorelai and Luke prepared coffee in the kitchen. Or, from the sounds of it, Luke prepared coffee, and Lorelai hovered. That was probably why he blurted out an awkward “I know,” to her announcement that she had been doing some freelance working for the _New York Times_.

Her eyebrows shot up, and Jess could almost see his words dangling in between them, like he could just reach out and pull them back in and undo the horrible moment. That was the thing about being a writer—he was always thinking about the ways he would write things differently. Unfortunately, that didn’t actually _prevent_ him from doing or saying stupid things in real life.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Luke mentioned it,” he offered as explanation. “Congrats.”

Rory smiled, and launched into the whole story. Jess nodded along asking questions like he didn’t already know the answers.

Finally, Rory turned the direction of the conversation to Jess’ life, and he answered questions about his next book and work at the magazine, and holy shit it just hit him all at once that she was doing the _same thing_. Leading the conversation with her questions just so in a way that didn’t give away how much she already knew.

Jess crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Luke as he had come into the room carrying a tray of coffees.

“What?” Rory asked, and looked over her shoulder. When she spotted Luke she seemed to clue. She grinned at him, and Jess laughed.

“You too, huh?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she admitted, tucking her hair behind her ears. It was such a _Rory_ move, that suddenly Jess just missed her. He missed everything about her, how great they’d been together, everything she had done for him, but more than that. Rory had been one of the first people in his life, besides Luke, to really force him to push his own boundaries. She’d inspired him, as cliché as it all sounded, and he missed that about her. He missed their friendship.

He managed a smile. “I can’t even be angry,” he said. “Not really.”

Rory laughed.

“But don’t think I haven’t noticed his growing resemblance to Patty and Babette.”

She doubled over with laugher. “Now that you mention it,” she trailed off.

Jess felt a tight longing in his chest, and really couldn’t bring himself to be upset with Luke for all his meddling. He kept Rory in Jess’ life, even when Jess couldn’t allow himself to want her there.

She walked into his life all those years ago, and never really left despite both their best intentions. “What do you say to getting your news first hand from now on?” he asked.

“Deal,” she said, holding out her hand.

Jess reached out and shook it.


End file.
